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The ripples of economic chaos have barely touched the northeast coast of Corfu. If you’re not on an oligarch’s budget, you can still buy into the glorious Greek lifestyle

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Less steep than the Med: the view from the hillside over Kalami Bay

Getty Images
Less steep than the Med: the view from the hillside over Kalami Bay
Getty Images

It is an irony much appreciated by visiting Brits that road access to some of the smartest houses on Corfu is by the roughest of tracks. Not all nationalities relish this state of affairs, but the fact remains that the most English of Greek islands is definitely 4x4, not Ferrari, country. Corfu’s perennial attraction to the wealthy and discerning has hardly waned as the Greek economy teeters towards the dreaded Grexit from the eurozone, new property taxes are introduced, then hurriedly withdrawn, and daily news reports fuel the sense of instability. In particular, a strip of coast to the northeast of this 40-mile-long, femur-shaped island in the Ionian Sea appears more immune to financial jitters than anywhere else in the country. Though when your best-known summer residents include the Rothschild dynasty, that kind of confidence is possibly to be expected. The association with the upper echelons of English life has a long tradition: one of the island’s original trophy homes, which goes under the delightfully suburban name of Mon Repos, was built near Corfu Town by the British commissioner Frederick Adam in 1826, during the protectorate of the island, and was the birthplace of our own Prince Philip. And in the 1930s, the writer Lawrence Durrell lived in the northeast before it was the superprime zone it is today. The solid cube of the White House, perched within toe-dipping reach of the waters of Kalami Bay, was, he wrote in Prospero’s Cell, “set like a dice on a rock”. It is now holiday rentals and a taverna. A few decades later, Jacob Rothschild built his palatial estate commanding the Kerasia headland near the harbour village of Agni. The jetties at this pebbly strand are easily accessible by boat from the property, and the smart set arrive in small craft for a deceptively pricey lunch in one of the beachfront tavernas (£17.50 for linguine with crab). The Rothschild estate is a magnet for the superyachts of some of the most powerful and wealthy people in the world — and the wannabes. Scandal ensued in 2008 when George Osborne, Peter Mandelson and the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska came together as guests of Nat Rothschild, Jacob’s banker son. Unguarded conversations were had and lurid headlines appeared. You might bump into members of the Italian Agnelli industrial dynasty, who also have a waterfront fiefdom on Corfu’s platinum coast, which extends barely five miles from Kassiopi to Nissaki. Another irony is that the views across the sparkling clear-blue water are to the rugged coast of Albania, one of the poorest countries in Europe, little more than a mile away at its closest point. You can savour an aperitif of vintage Krug (£170 a bottle) at Taverna Agni as the dusk gentles down and the lumpen concrete buildings fade into the joyless dark just across the water. So, if you’re looking to join the high rollers of Corfu, are there bargains to be plucked from the economic maelstrom? It’s not quite that simple, but good deals can be found, and there’s even money to be made. “In 2009 and 2010, there were one or two distressed sales, but on the whole owners could hold fire and rent their houses out, and the market did not collapse,” says Piers Williams, founder of Ionian International estate agency, which specialises in Corfu. Over the past few years, the holiday rental market here, always a lure for posh Brits, has really revved up, with an uber-luxe strand for the best-equipped and serviced villas. Owners can earn up to £35,000 a week in high season; subtract 20%-25% from the gross for getting a travel company to market and run the rentals. That, Williams says, is bringing “new people to Corfu, who are now looking at investing. Last summer was our best since 2007, though since the snap election [which brought in the anti-austerity left-wing government of Alexis Tsipras], people have been sitting on their hands.” So, while the locals are anxious, as pensions and state benefits are slashed, and many on the island have gone back to growing their own fruit and veg, villa owners are relaxed, insulated by wealth or making a hefty rental income, says Anne Tsoukalas, of Corfu Estate Agents. She runs the firm with her husband, Lefteris, who also carries out restoration projects. It is family circumstances, rather than global economics, that have reduced the price of Kassiopi Sea View from €750,000 to €595,000 (£425,000) for a quick sale (corfuhomefinders.com). Just about walking distance from the harbour resort of Kassiopi, it has 190 sq metres of living space, including four bedrooms and four bathrooms, as well as terraces and a pool. It’s set in 5,000 sq metres of olive groves, with splendid sea views, and was built six years ago in the common style for Corfiot villas: living areas upstairs, bedrooms below. Jane Allen and her husband, Jasper, bought the Manor House, a gloriously secluded retreat 10 minutes’ drive from Kassiopi, in 2004. She extended the dilapidated old stone farmhouse into a stylish five-bedroom house furnished with antiques. It was a family retreat, which she didn’t bother renting out until this year, when she upgraded it to fit the top rental bracket, spending €100,000 on a pool and more terraces. “I’ve had to buy new linen for changing the beds three times a week, and some matching bedside tables,” Allen says. “And I have a new accountant in Corfu Town. He’ll tell me how much I’ll be able to claim against tax [villa owners need to file Greek tax returns on rental income].” She is letting through Simpson Exclusive and expects to get her investment back by the end of the season — plus a few weeks for her own holidays. The Manor House is on the market for €2.5m (ionianinternational.com), but Allen is not in the mood to bargain for a sale: “I can do this for years — there’ll be a super income next year.” The big trophy villas, which command up to £35,000 a week in high season — and from about £12,000 in April — really do need to have all the bells and whistles, says Diana Giannoulis, a partner at Corfuhomefinders. That means everything from high-end interior design and furnishing, luxurious bathrooms, good beds and bed linen, towels, robes and posh toiletries to seriously comfortable outdoor living spaces with an outside kitchen, a high-quality sound system and TVs throughout, as well as a full-time housekeeper and chef. Simpson Exclusive’s most expensive house — it has about 15 top-end Corfu villas on its books — is booked solid until October. For the middle market, a pool and a cleaner twice a week are essential, as are ample sun loungers, a well-equipped kitchen and satellite TV. These rent for £5,000-£8,500 a week. Giannoulis advises going for the pale, neutral, driftwood and linen “international coastal” look — Kassiopi Sea View fits into this category. If you’re thinking of going more upmarket, Ionian International has the Villa Melissa, perched above Avlaki beach, for €3m. With a free-form infinity pool — it curves around a couple of venerable olive trees — and a choice of shaded outdoor living areas, with kitchen, in landscaped grounds, the spacious five-bedroom property was built three years ago. It has been finished to a luxurious standard, with smooth Venetian plasterwork (by the island’s last remaining specialist craftsman), and slots straight into the top holiday rental bracket. If you think that’s expensive, Spyros Analytis, founder of Corfu Property Agency, points out that if you “compare like to like in the Mediterranean, northeast Corfu is two or three times cheaper than the French Riviera, Mallorca or Sardinia”. With top rental yields and the ability for transactions to be legally carried out between foreign buyers and sellers without the money touching a Greek bank — in the days of the drachma, most big sales were done in dollars — Analytis thinks that for investors “looking to the mid- and long term, it’s a no-brainer.” If you’d rather build your own house, first secure your plot. The key to Corfu, Williams says, is that “it’s in the hills, with fantastic views, that you’ll get a land deal, though you’re never more than 20 minutes from the coast. We can’t find cheap land on the sea or directly behind the bay.” His colleague Marcus Gondolo-Gordon adds that “for good plots, owners are asking high prices. I’ve got three in the hills behind Agios Stefanos, where €350,000 will get you 4,000-5,000 sq metres.” On this size plot, you could build a house of up to 225 sq metres, plus covered terraces, which are a bit of a grey area for planning. A good-quality build here would cost at least €450,000. According to Williams says, you should also allow as much as €350,000 for outdoors: the pool, the drive, the electric gates and high walls, the planting and the hard landscaping, often on steeply sloping land. “You’ll build your house at the top, so the land below will have to be shored up,” he says. Save money on indoor living space and invest in outdoor seating and dining areas instead. You can enter Corfu’s golden zone for a great deal less, if you’re prepared to go seriously rustic. Corfu Estate Agents has an old stone olive press in Tritsi, on the market for €200,000, that could be converted — for about €1,500 per sq metre — into a 200 sq metre, three-bedroom house with lovely views, although no land or pool. Even cheaper, in Vasiliki, north of Kalamaki beach, there’s a tumbledown stone cottage for €39,000, which could create a bijou two-room retreat. “There’s a plentiful supply of skilled labour these days, Giannoulis says, “so you should expect high quality at reasonable prices.” The standard of building work on the island is high at every level of the market, as local builders take on board British buyers’ ideas and the latest technology. A compact stone house in an olive grove near Acharavi, restored by Lefteris Tsoukalas for Carl and Shelley Daeche, from Broadstairs, Kent, is “old on the outside, brand-new on the inside”, Carl says. It has high-spec underfloor heating and cooling, thermal glass and shutters, a kitchen window that slides right into the thick stone wall, a double-height living area with a mezzanine, three bedroom suites and terraces front and back. In 2012, it cost them €200,000 for the finished house, plus extra for the landscaping: “We’re grateful we’ve got a small area of land.” Ionian International is also selling a huge plot that ticks the biggest box of all: direct sea access. On a headland at the end of sandy Kalamaki beach, just to the north of Kassiopi, some 64,000 sq metres run down to the sea. Gondolo-Gordon reckons it would make a fabulous compound for a big family, or two sharing. And, in a sign that the market is not quite at pre-crisis levels, the asking price is down from the original €3.6m to €2.8m. This article was originally published on The Sunday Times

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